Today we just had another really great Praise hour. The thing I'm most excited about is that five of my friends from the band came, three of them for the first time! The two who have come before, are T (the young lady that I carpool to band with) and F (the guy I went to dinner with in my last post). They all had an enjoyable time, to varying degrees. For example, one of the newcomers said of Pastor's message: 'I've never heard that way of thinking before.' That to me is how a Japanese person would politely say 'I didn't like it because I disagreed with everything he said.' It doesn't matter either way; God's word is powerful. On the other end of the spectrum, F said that he could understand easily, especially because of what I explained to him about sin last week. Pastor's message was based on part of Genesis 6, the flood, and also the new testament reference to the flood symbolizing baptism. The message was all in Japanese, so I didn't understand every detail, but he told interesting stories, preached the Gospel, and very sensitively offered baptism in such a way that I didn't think it would be offensive to those who weren't interested, but would be very encouraging for those who were.
The other cool thing was that I played my horn during the service! I've been praying that I might have a chance to do it, and the night before the service, Pastor's wife asked me to play on one of the songs. I was actually kind of glad that no one really commented on it, because I wanted to play purely with a heart of praise, not like a recital. They were busy singing along, anyway.
After the praise hour, we had our usual icebreaker time, which was good, and then we had a dinner of Chicago style pizza. Victor spent a few weeks researching and trying recipies, and the church bought a new gas oven so that we'd be able to cook all of them. It will be really nice this Thanksgiving, too. We cooked ten pizzas, in rectangular pans because we could fit more in the oven that way. We actually baked the pizzas the day before, and it took all afternoon and into the evening, but I was only there for part of it. Then we reheated them during the icebreaker time. It turned out really good, and other Americans who know Chicago pizza said it tasted really authentic. We also served salad and spaghetti, and had a few desserts as well.
Altogether, there were 49 people in attendance. It was a good number, because the church was full but not overfull. Only 16 of those were Christian; 33 were guests. We had plenty of food; in fact we had one whole pizza leftover. There were several regulars, Christians from other churches, and several newcomers. One family of a student of mine in Tagami came for the first time, and seemed interested in coming again. There were only a couple of families with kids, and after we were done eating, I went with them into a side room to play with puzzles and draw pictures.
After most everyone had gone home, ten of us went to play badminton again: me, Victor, Laura, Efrain, Eriko (pastor's teenage daughter); A, F, and two other guys and a lady that I don't know as well so I haven't mentioned them before. We had a good time, and worked off all (or at least most) of the calories from our pizza! Overall, I think it was another good praise hour: the Gospel was preached, God's word was read, we sang his praises and fellowshipped with people from all walks of life, forming friendships and talking about what we care about.
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